Remote working could be putting your business at risk

Flexible working leads to better productivity, but could lead to use of insecure networks.

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(Image credit: Image Credit: Flickr / Mike MacKenzie)

For UK businesses, allowing their employees to work remotely is important. However security is also important and sometimes these two don't really go hand-in-hand.

According to a new report by OneLogin, British workers spend up to a day connecting to their company via unsecured networks -potentially putting them at risk of cyber-attacks and other similar threats.

So, companies have answered by adding a mandatory VPN whenever employees want to connect. Almost half (48 per cent) of companies always require employees to use VPNs when working remotely.

The trouble begins if that VPN isn't good enough and, according to OneLogin's report, they often aren't good enough.

Almost a third (30 per cent) have received frequent complaints that the VPN is slowing the network down. Two thirds (67 per cent) experienced up to a week of VPN downtime in the past year, and in 10 per cent of cases, VPN was down for more than a week.

“With productivity levels compromised, companies such as HP, IBM and Yahoo have decided to turn their backs on remote working altogether. However, businesses shouldn’t jump too quickly to cast remote working aside. It is possible for businesses to enable and actively encourage remote working, without compromising security or productivity,” said Alvaro Hoyos, chief information security officer at OneLogin.

Hoyos adds, “With VPN’s proving so unreliable, people are more likely to turn to potentially unsecured networks which could prove to be catastrophic for a business’s cyber-security. This could be devastating as data breaches could leave confidential documents in the wrong hands and can be incredibly costly to remediate. By using next-generation mobile container technology, organisations can extend endpoint security from desktops to mobile devices and thereby enjoy a unified endpoint management solution.”